PCI signal generator plug-ins make performance tradeoffs

Montreal, CanadaGage Applied Technologies, worldwide leader in design and manufacture of high-performance PC-based digitizer and oscilloscope cards, has introduced a new CompuGen family of arbitrary waveform generator cards for the PCI platform. The new PCI CompuGen family of ultra-fast arbitrary waveform generator cards offers 12-bit resolution at D/A conversion rates of up to 1 billion samples per second.

The family is comprised of the following three new products: CompuGen 11G, CompuGen 4300, and the CompuGen 8150. The product specifications can be summarized as follows:

These new arbitrary waveform generator and function generator cards are capable of providing aperiodic analog waveforms by creating a digital representation of the waveform in the on-board memory of the CompuGen card (standard offering 4 Megasamples of on-board memory and 16 MegaSamples is now optionally available on the CompuGen 8150). This digital pattern is then converted into an analog signal using a high speed Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC).

"Our new PCI CompuGen cards complement well our expanding line of PCI digitizer cards and allow us to provide a complete solution to our customers for their test and measurement needs," said Eric Gillas, General Manager of Gage Applied Technologies. "Customers can use one of our CompuGen cards to easily generate complex or customized analog signals. Furthermore, they can simulate real-world signals from standalone instruments and connect these signals to one of our digitizer cards in order to validate their complete measurement system," added Gillas.

Free software for creating, editing, and generating waveforms as well as software development kits for C/C++, MATLAB, and LabVIEW are included.

The CompuGen PCI products are available to order immediately with a projected lead-time of 8 weeks and pricing starts at US $4,495.00.